The Vampires in True Blood attribute the cause of their vampirness with a disease. This actually rings true. Porphyria is a rare disease that is apart of the Vampire Legends.

Vampire characteristics are similar to those of porphyrics and this may have led to the misconception in the early 1400-1600’s that porphyria sufferers were vampires. Vampire legends are in every country and porphyria is also found throughout the world. Porphyria comes from the Greek word meaning purple.

According to associated content porphyria is a group of disorders caused by the abnormal production of heme which is the base material responsible for making hemoglobin and chlorophyll. Most types of porphyria are inherited. A child needs to inherit the defective gene from only one parent to develop the disease. Heme is a substance found in all body tissues. Excessive porphyrin in the body causes photosensitivity which is oversensitivity to sunlight(explaing why vampires can’t go out in the sunglight). When porphyrins are exposed to light and oxygen, they generate a charged, unstable form of oxygen that can damage the skin. Nerve damage, pain and paralysis can occur in some porphyrias.

In addition, haemtodipsia is a documented medical disorder, which is a sexual thirst for blood and heeralopia or day blindness. Anemia (bloodlessness) was often in the early centuries mistaken for a vampire bite.

Most vampire myths come to us from the Dark Ages, when science was in its infancy and people looked to religion or superstition to explain the world around them. While many vampire myths have their basis in Christian orthodoxy, others represent imaginative interpretations of actual vampire behavior.

1. Vampires drink blood

While blood drinking isn’t enough to define a vampire, it is an overwhelming feature. In some cultures, drinking the blood of a victim allowed the drinker to absorb their victim’s strength, take on an animal’s quality, or even make a woman more fecund. The color red is also involved in many vampire rituals.

2. Vampires sleep in coffins

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

The legend that vampires must sleep in coffins probably arose from reports of gravediggers and morticians who described corpses suddenly sitting up in their graves or coffins. This eerie phenomenon could be caused by the decomposing process.

3. Garlic repels Vampires

Garlic is another ancient method of fending off evil spirits. Garlic has been used in cultures throughout the world as a healing medicine and natural vitamin. It was thought to have a pu

rification principle much like the metal Silver. People would hang it outside their doorways to keep evil spirits from entering their homes. The ancient societies got a little carried away with Garlic condemning anyone who had an aversion to garlic as a vampire. Garlic was also passed out during church ceremonies so that church official could be sure that no evil spirits were attending.

4. Crosses will keep Vampires away

A cross employ

After the advent of Christianity, methods of repelling vampires began to include holy water, crucifixes, and Eucharist wafers. These methods were usually not fatal to the vampire, and their effectiveness depended on the belief of the user

5. Vampires can not go out in sunlight

The myth that sunlight can kill vampires seems to be a modern invention, perhaps started by the U.S. government to scare superstitious guerrillas in the Philippines in the 1950s. While sunlight can be used by vampires to kill other vampires, as in Ann Rice’s popular novel Interview with a Vampire, other vampires such as Lord Ruthven and Varney were able to walk in daylight.

Many scholars argue the word “vampire” is either from the Hungarian vampir or from the Turkish upior, upper, upyr meaning “witch.” Other scholars argue the term derived from the Greek word “to drink” or from the Greek nosophoros meaning “plague carrier.” It may also derive from the Serbian Bamiiup or the Serbo-Crotian pirati. There are many terms for “vampire” found across cultures, suggesting that vampires are embedded in human consciousness.

Vampires are mythological creatures that exist on the drinking the blood of their victims. According to literary historian Brian Frost the “belief in vampires and bloodsucking demons is as old as man himself,” From Bram Stroker’s 1897 story, Dracula to our modern-day versions Twilight, True Blood, and Vampire Diaries. We have a fascination with these undead creatures known as vampires. It’s hard not to get caught up in this romanticized creature that appears at night and lives forever. I know that I can’t get enough and at times even wonder, if they could exist. Vampire notes will look at all things Vampires from the myths and legends to books, television, and film.